The Argentina international, who already has eight Ballon d’Or victories to his name, will leave Europe for the United States as a free agent in the summer of 2023. Messi made an immediate impression in America, inspiring Inter Miami to a historic League Cup victory, and has helped to elevate both the reputation and standard of Major League Soccer, with more famous names anticipated to follow in his legendary footsteps.

Atlanta United star Almada, who won the 2022 World Cup with Messi, told ESPN about how his renowned countryman is changing the game in Major League Soccer: “It changed a lot with Messi. The football improved a lot. You can see that a lot more. It’s back and forth, there are a lot of goals. Sometimes it happened to us that we started winning and didn’t build on that, and we ended up losing. When Leo came, he knew more about MLS than I did. I spoke when we faced each other. He arrived and they started winning all the games.”

Almada was awarded MLS Young Player of the Year for 2023 after collecting 11 goals and 19 assists during the regular season, and he now hopes to find a new home. On his own future, he continued, as he prepares to follow in Messi’s footsteps at Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain: “I want to go to Europe now. I would like to play in the Spanish La Liga. There was interest from Ajax before, which could not happen. Let’s see now.”

Almada is a product of the Velez Sarsfield academy system, but he left his home in February 2022 to travel to Atlanta. The brilliant 22-year-old already has four senior international caps and will be looking to make Argentina’s squad for the 2024 Copa America, which will be held in the United States.